Parma will help promote small businesses with new website

Many small businesses in Parma don’t have the time, expertise or resources to create their own websites.

Starting in February, the city will help these shops establish an Internet presence that it hopes will attract more people to the Parma business scene.

The city is crafting a website called Faces and Places. It will feature information and videos about small businesses throughout town.

Each business owner on the website can tell his or her story, talk about how the business started and review the business’s products and services.

The website will have a map showing where the businesses are located. It will also provide information about entertainment and recreation options in Parma.

The inspiration for Faces and Places came from businesses in Polish and Ukrainian villages, according to Erik Tollerup, the city’s director of community services and economic development.

Tollerup said many people, even Parma residents, don’t even know these businesses exist, or at least they don’t know much about them.

“They (the businesses) had a very small Internet presence, very little e-tailing (electronic retailing),” Tollerup said. “Outside of calling up a Google map, which might list all of the little businesses, there was really nothing highlighted in Ukrainian or Polish villages or any of our (small) businesses throughout the city.”

CrossPointe Studios, a Noblesville, Ind. company, and city officials will create the Faces and Places website.

The firm has created similar websites in Indiana. Parma’s will be the first of its kind in Ohio, Tollerup said.

CrossPointe marketed its website product to the city in July. City officials just happened to be looking for the same product.

“It goes along with what we’ve been trying to do,” Mayor Tim DeGeeter said. “We want to stay connected, work with our businesses and promote them.”

Tollerup said Faces and Places will cost $19,500 a year. The city’s portion is $9,500 — and federal Community Development Block Grant money will cover that entire amount.

Large corporate sponsors will pay the remainder of the bill. In exchange, the Faces and Places website will prominently feature sponsor companies.

The city will start by featuring 10 small businesses — not necessarily all in Polish and Ukrainian villages — the first year. It will add another 10 businesses in each successive year.

DeGeeter said the website might even include manufacturers and distributors in the city’s industrial section.

“This is another way to highlight these businesses,” DeGeeter said. “If we can’t get people in there physically, this may be an opportunity to at least virtually make them aware that these businesses are in Parma.”

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